It is often desirable to reduce the number of electrical leads necessary for connecting an assembly of switches to external circuitry.
One known technique is to use an XY arrangement wherein one lead is provided for each column and another for each row of an array of switches (e.g., 7 leads instead of 12 for a 3.times.4 array).
Also known in the switch art is to provide a movable element that causes a change in capacitance, which change is then sensed by external circuitry.